In times of disasters and emergency situations access to reliable, integrated communications and tactical information is absolutely critical. Unfortunately the ability to mount a coordinated inter-agency response to major threats is often hampered by the proliferation of divergent signaling standards and non-aligned spectrum planning.

Considered as the de-facto standard for Public Safety broadband communications, LTE is rapidly gaining momentum within the Public Safety industry. As a result Public Safety agencies, vendors and service provider are heavily investing in Public Safety LTE, with commercial deployments in both the North America and the Middle East region. While initial investments appear promising there still remain a number of key issues that need to be addressed such as frequency spectrum allocation, funding for private LTE network deployments, QoS prioritization of users in commercial networks, and interoperability with legacy Land Mobile Radio (LMR) systems such as APCO 25 and TETRA.

This report provides an in-depth of the global Public Safety LTE industry to address the aforementioned issues, in addition to providing a detail assessment of the technology, market size, and key trends within the Public Safety LTE industry.

The report covers the following topics:

Global Spectrum Allocation for Public Safety LTE: A global assessment of spectrum allocation and funding for Public Safety LTE deployments, based on input from regional regulatory authorities.Global Public Safety LTE Market Size, Contracts & Trials: A global review of the worldwide Public Safety LTE market including assessment of revenue share by market segment (infrastructure sales, services, user device sales, etc), and a review of global contracts and trial engagements.RAN Sharing and Roaming: The term "RAN sharing" refers to sharing of actual eNodeBs. As part of this arrangement, each operator accesses the shared RAN with its own EPC. Vendors are also considering the implementation of Inter-PLMN handover (as opposed to roaming) and then for LTE Commercial carriers to deploy Policies for Service Level Agreements that include Priority Access (Access Class Barring, Preemption and ARP) and QoS/ QCI assignment for default and dedicated bearers. The report assesses in detail how many of vendors and commercial carriers will support RAN sharing, roaming and inter-PLMN handovers which will be key factors towards the adoption of commercial LTE RANs for Public Safety applications.Global QoS Requirements for Public Safety LTE Communications: A detailed assessment of global requirements for Priority access and High QoS for Public Safety subscribers, for shared commercial LTE networks, while they roam on to Commercial Networks.Public Safety LTE Devices and End User Applications: An assessment of device usability characteristics, Multi-Radio LTE/LMR interoperability technology, Software and Applications (VoLTE, PTT over LTE, IMS, IP).Vendor Trends and Roadmaps: A detailed assessment of solution portfolios and roadmaps for major infrastructure/ device vendors and system integratorsLTE-Advanced Support for Heterogeneous Commercial/LMR Networks: In-depth assessment of the LTE Advanced standard and technologies and spectrum planning for Fixed/Nomadic based Pico Cells/Femto Cells and mobile base stations (e.g. LTE Cell on Wheels (CoW)) and proximity based services such as Direct Mode Operation (DMO) in LMR systems, which have broad implications for the adoption of Public Safety LTE services.LTE based Public Safety Tactical Systems and Military Applications: Detailed market assessment of LTE based Public Safety Tactical Systems such as CoW, Cell over Light Trucks (COLTs) and Military Applications for LTE.

Key Findings:

Between 2013 and 2018, the Public Safety LTE market will grow at a CAGR of 43 % accounting for over $ 10 Billion in revenue by 2018, up from $ 1.8 Billion in 2013.Operator service revenues will constitute a vast majority of the revenue, followed by managed services and integration, representing a lucrative opportunity for vendors and system integrators to build, own and operate Public Safety LTE networks.Europe will lag behind Middle East, Asia Pacific and Latin America in the early adoption of Public Safety LTE technology due to stringent spectrum regulation policies. The Middle East has already witnessed commercialization of the technology with an early deployment by the Qatar MOI.